I remember I told my mom that i don't need tuition when i was in primary school and still score As.

But then again, the educational system now may be quite different from then.

With all the ranking nonsense, schools will naturally focus their resources on those students who can give higher returns, leaving those not so good ones struggling and hence no choice but to rely on extra tuitions ???

Senior Member

This Senior Minister of State must be so out of touch with reality with many schools discreetly asking parents to send their kids for tuition if they don't do well.

Actually this problem quite easy to solve. The government should set a requirement that government scholarships would only be awarded to those students who are naturally bright and have not received tuition. Every year, students and their parents would be asked to make a statutory declaration that they have been "Tuition-Free" (if they are). Students' report card would also indicate if a student have been tuition free against each subject. E.g. Grade: A* NT means A* grade with No Tuition.

Senior Member

This Senior Minister of State must be so out of touch with reality with many schools discreetly asking parents to send their kids for tuition if they don't do well.

Actually this problem quite easy to solve. The government should set a requirement that government scholarships would only be awarded to those students who are naturally bright and have not received tuition. Every year, students and their parents would be asked to make a statutory declaration that they have been "Tuition-Free" (if they are). Students' report card would also indicate if a student have been tuition free against each subject. E.g. Grade: A* NT means A* grade with No Tuition.

I think its complicating the matter without really solving the problem. The issue brought up by the MP is about level playing field and social mobility for everyone.
I would think that affordable higher education as well as financial background checks for scholarship will alleviate the problem.
Inequality is an important issue. If anyone is interested, can read the book, Price of Inequality by Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate.

Deregistered

Actually, now that we have more info from all bros, i see it as a double whammy.

Root cause is that schools try to outperform each other for the ranking shxx.

This leads to them "optimising" their resources [better teachers] to focus on those students who will give higher returns [aka better students]. This then inevitably put those "not-so-good" students at an disadvantage [neglected] and it becomes a NECESSITY for them to engage external help in the form of tuition.

On the other extreme, for those better students who already got the "privileged" support from school and further due to Kiasu-ism of their parents and the school [as what UncleFai pointed out], they are also pushed into tuition.
This is the group which our SMOS is referring to.

And she forgot about those in the first group, the not-so-good, who really need the tuition [a matter of life and death, so to speak]
And i really pity those families that are not so well off and cannot afford the tuition. Their kids will become the "outcast"

This is a case of a mother showing off. She was on an ego trip. She was indirectly boasting to everybody else in the McDonald's restaurant at that time, that she is the mother of a child who usually gets straight As (probably future scholar with bright future).

If she cared about her son, she would not hit and scold him IN PUBLIC over such a trivial matter, for everyone else to see.
She does not care about her son's self esteem. She only cares about herself.

Senior Member

This is a case of a mother showing off. She was on an ego trip. She was indirectly boasting to everybody else in the McDonald's restaurant at that time, that she is the mother of a child who usually gets straight As (probably future scholar with bright future).

If she cared about her son, she would not hit and scold him IN PUBLIC over such a trivial matter, for everyone else to see.
She does not care about her son's self esteem. She only cares about herself.

New Member

This Senior Minister of State must be so out of touch with reality with many schools discreetly asking parents to send their kids for tuition if they don't do well.

Actually this problem quite easy to solve. The government should set a requirement that government scholarships would only be awarded to those students who are naturally bright and have not received tuition. Every year, students and their parents would be asked to make a statutory declaration that they have been "Tuition-Free" (if they are). Students' report card would also indicate if a student have been tuition free against each subject. E.g. Grade: A* NT means A* grade with No Tuition.

lol
i can BS anything on the statutory declaration, when there's no one/or way to enforce it.
how are you going to check that parents haven't been secretly sending their kids to tuition classes? maybe they've been disguising their weekly shopping trips to JB when they're really sending them to special SG-syllabus tuition classes there! (don't underestimate the kiasu-ness of some parents and the resourcefulness of JB-ians)